Facing choices in life and work

Ethics are needed where we face choices and there’s no one but ourselves to see what we do. If there are rules to follow, the choice is between compliance and rebellion. That isn’t an ethical matter. It depends on fear of punishment versus desire for whatever lies outside the rules.

If you face shame or scandal if you’re caught, that isn’t an ethical decision either. Prudence or fear decide the outcome. But if you face nothing beyond your own thoughts about living as you wish to live, you’re confronting a purely ethical decision.

The decision to gossip and pass on a rumor that will embarrass someone; the choice to go easy on a task and cut yourself some slack; the time spent chatting around the water cooler; using office phone lines, computers or stationery for your private needs; all are ethical decisions. No one will know what you’ve done (or they’re doing it themselves and in no position to point the finger).

These small, everyday instances of ethical decisions–are no different from the decision to win a deal by misleading the buyer, cheating a little on an expense claim (everyone does it, right?), or dropping a few words into a meeting that you know will mean someone you dislike will find him or herself under suspicion.

The argument for an ethical approach

The argument for an ethical approach to life is simple. You need to consider your actions, even minor ones, in the clear light of the most likely result. Emotions are a poor guide. They tempt you to exchange short-term pleasure (seeing the hated colleague in trouble) for long-term problems (when he or she finds cleverer ways to mess you up in revenge). Rules, even moral ones, rarely cover more than a narrow range of situations. Besides, most people are good at reinterpreting the rules to allow them to do whatever they want; and act as injured innocents if they’re caught.

An ethical approach to life and work depends on standards of thinking and acting you impose on yourself, to free yourself from anxiety and regret and increase your satisfaction and happiness. No belief that you will receive any reward. No one other than yourself to approve what you do or tell yourself to do better next time.

Is it worth it?

Only you can answer that, though there are obvious reasons to believe that the answer will be “yes.”

Suppose everyone lied. What kind of a world would we live in? You could trust no one, not even your closest family. You would never know what to expect or be able to rely on others. Imagine how anxious and fearful you would be all the time. The lengths you would need to go to discover anything correct. The effort you needed to produce your own lies while trying to see through the lies of others.

Would you like to live in such a world? Would it make you happy? Would if offer you a good life?

This is the rationale for approaching life from an ethical standpoint. However you imagine what life would be like without ethics, the result is fearful. If you imagine a life where everyone behaved ethically (even though this is equally unlikely), the picture offers more happiness and freedom than we have today. Ethics are their own reward, not in the abstract sense of being right, but in the practical sense that a life without them would be unlivable.

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